InCommon Steering Committee Meeting - April 1, 2019
Attending: Marty Ringle, Ann West, Melissa Woo, Brad Christ, Mike Erickson, Laura Paglione, Christine Miki, Sean Reynolds
With: Kevin Morooney, Albert Wu, Mary Catherine Martinez, Brett Bieber
Mike Erickson chaired today’s meeting.
InCommon Fee Change Proposal
Mike reviewed the draft language for the fee change resolution. There were no changes, so the language and instructions for voting will be sent to Steering within the next few days (pending any comments from the Internet2 Board of Trustees, which meets on April 2).
Fee Change Resolution
In May 2018, the InCommon Steering Committee began discussions regarding the future operational and financial sustainability of InCommon. There are many converging dynamics that triggered such a discussion; the successful completion of the TIER program, a change in support for Shibboleth, and the recognition of the intricate and ever increasing connection between the operation of the federation and the software upon which it depends compel the steering committee to position InCommon to both seize opportunities and mitigate risks associated with these dynamics.
After several months of discussion and working with InCommon/Internet2 staff, a potential new InCommon service fee schedule was developed to address these dynamics. The InCommon Steering Committee and senior InCommon/Internet2 staff invited all InCommon Executives and Participants to a January 2019 webinar where the dynamics and the proposed new fee schedule were discussed and feedback, concerns solicited. Open office hours (to which InCommon Executives and Participants were again invited) were conducted weekly for four weeks, to continue to solicit feedback on the proposed new fee schedule. All webinar materials were made available on a web site (https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/x/DQJ0C) and a Frequently Asked Questions document was developed (https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/x/KAJ0C).
The current InCommon fee schedule can be view at https://www.incommon.org/fees.html and is attached.
The proposed new fee schedule is:
InCommon Fees by Participant Level | ||||
Current Participants | Current Cert-Only | Current Research Org | 2020 Participation Fees** | |
Level 1 | $5,025 | $4,138 | $3,250 | $12,000 |
Level 2 | $4,025 | $3,363 | $2,700 | $9,000 |
Level 3 | $2,575 | $2,088 | $1,600 | $6,000 |
Level 4 | $1,755 | $1,468 | $1,180 | $2,500 |
*Levels are based on Carnegie classifications (higher ed), FTE (research orgs), and annual revenue (sponsored partners). **Note: These fees are for InCommon participation. They do not include the separate fees for the Certificate Service or eduroam. | ||||
Baseline Expectations Report and Recommendations from CTAB
The Community Trust and Assurance Board (CTAB) has presented an action plan to Steering as the next step in implementing Baseline Expectations. The plan lays out the communications steps to those who have yet to meet Baseline Expectations, which ultimately may lead to some entities being removed from the metadata.
Mary Catherine Martinez, chair of CTAB, led Steering through a short presentation concerning the plan, which includes several communications steps - to the organizations and to the community. The plan includes removing entities on May 15, should they continue to not meet Baseline, or are not in communications with InCommon about rectifying the situation. Currently there are 15 organizations that are classified as high-risk, but have neither addressed Baseline nor responded to CTAB. In addition, there are 10 organizations that are either engaged in bilateral relationships or have test entities that do not meet BE. These are classified as low-risk and will be addressed later (this is a resource allocation decision for InCommon).
In addition, as of April 8 the Federation Manager software will not allow publication of metadata that does not meet Baseline Expectations.
There was some concern expressed that treating these bilateral/test entities differently could cause some problems (e.g. being treated more leniently). Ann responded that this was discussed, and a risk-based approach is being used because of constrained resources.
Steering recommended that communications to these non-complying organizations (and to the community) be very clear about the consequences - that they risk customers not being able to access services. In addition, there will be communications to the community that those who use the services that are in jeopardy should contact those organizations and encourage them to meet Baseline Expectations.
Baseline Expectations Action Plan Resolution
Melissa moved, Mary seconded and it was unanimously approved to accept the action plan provided by CTAB.